In a historical context, the civil rights movement was rife with sexism. The feminist movement of the 70s excluded Women of Color. The 80s were all about race, gender and class and the 90s firmly brought sexual orientation into focus, as well as ableism. And it’s been more recent to include transgender people and gender expression into an intersectional analysis.[1]

It’s obvious when we look back what the gaps are. But what will future generations say about the shortcomings of this time period, as we arc towards 2020? What will be obvious to them that is still obscure to us?

I’m arguing that current strategies in racial and social justice education are hyper-cognitive, overly ideological and incredibly linear. And what I’m proposing is that psychological literacy—defined broadly as learning that supports deep self-reflection, self-regulation and compassion—is a key part of what is missing and could strengthen our work. This underdevelopment is also linked to a wide variety of issues we struggle with ranging from the resistance we face from learners in classrooms to toxicity within progressive movements broadly, not to mention the increased polarization in society.

It’s important to acknowledge that this piece is offered with a truth-speaking love that comes with being involved in anti-racism/ anti-oppression work for almost 25 years as a student, community organizer and teacher. Some of you will find what I say helpful and relieving while others may be turned off. Regardless of your reaction, I offer it with my deepest respect for the work that you—that we—all do.

Anti-Racism 101: The Perpetual Loop

I frequently hear from racial justice educators about how tired they are of society being in a perpetual loop of Anti-Racism 101—and the struggles they encounter working with resistance in the room, especially from those who have the most social privilege. I get it. I’ve been involved in this work for a long time. It can be frustrating.

But our explanations of what’s happening for learners in our workshops and classrooms, is often incomplete. Let me explain using two examples.

Beyond Race to the Margins

Firstly, most racial justice educators have experienced what is sometimes called “race to the margins”—the frustrating phenomenon of wanting to focus the workshop on racism, for example, while white learners want to talk about gender or poverty issues. This occurrence is often interpreted as learners replacing the uncomfortable topic with one they may have experienced personally, which is easier to discuss. It is interpreted as a partly defensive response to not wanting to identify with one’s social privilege. Of course, some of this is entirely true, especially for the beginner learner. But it’s not the whole picture.

This also has to do with the relational nature of the brain, which rapidly and automatically associates one topic with another. If I tell you a story of spilling hot coffee on my new shirt, most people’s brains will instantly recall events and stories related to “hot drink spills” and “stains on clothes.” It’s reflexive—a part of what the brain does. Equally, if we begin talking about issues of systemic racial discrimination, most beginners’ brains will automatically start thinking of their own experiences related to discrimination. It may be irritating but it’s unfortunately natural. If we don’t take this into account as educators, then we may misdiagnose our experience, becoming reactive rather than being effective.

Nervous System Regulation

Secondly, it’s not widespread knowledge amongst social justice educators that in order for learning to occur, emotions have to be modulated carefully so as not to overwhelm the nervous system of the learner. Issues like racial and gender justice are the most triggering of subjects as they activate core parts of our identities, involving the survival parts of our unconscious mind. In this mode of fight-flight-freeze, big feelings overwhelm our systems, shutting down the possibility of learning as our pre-frontal cortex—the “thinking” self—goes off-line.

So, if we want to be teaching about issues of identity and justice, a terrain in which the conversation can unconsciously get polarized into “good people” and “bad people”, teachers have to learn to titrate in the information at a rate that the nervous systems of the learners can handle. The coentional instruction of just telling learners to “sit with your guilt/ shame” or not letting people “off the hook”, is just plain and simply bad pedagogy.

Is there any other place in education where there is a strongly articulated belief that an overwhelmed student is capable of learning anything?

We don’t actually recognize the issue of nervous system overwhelm in the learner, as our work is not strongly rooted in a psycho-educational context. And this is part of the reason we get such kickback from learners. We are overly reliant on political-historical analyses—cognitive strategies—to tackle problems that are fundamentally emotional in nature. Like throwing a drowning person a fire extinguisher, it’s the wrong tool for the task. After all, how easy is it for any of us to be effective, let alone learn, if we are experiencing strong feelings of confusion, guilt or shame?

The metaphor that I’ve found helpful is that of the Rider and Elephant, referring to the conscious and unconscious mind, respectively. Created by researcher and psychologist Jonathan Haidt, this metaphor immediately speaks to size mismatch between the Rider (thinking) and the Elephant (feeling) parts of ourselves. This is why emotional literacy is so critical to the work.

Educator Role Overshadowed by the Academic and Activist

The teacher has to expect the aforementioned issues will emerge, give permission for it be acceptable in the learning process and design the teaching to unfold in order for the learner to understand the issues and what is at stake. This adds to the challenge because already the topics of race, gender and identity are the most difficult to teach as they evoke strong emotions because of the urgency of the issues—people’s lives are on the line, literally.

But if we are teachers then we must teach.

And because of the volatility, it’s even more imperative that we take the educator’s stance, which is different than that of the academic who is research-oriented, or the activist who pushes for social change. These are important roles under the same umbrella, but fundamentally different than that of the social justice educator whose key job is to take that which is complex (and emotional) and turn it into something digestible and understandable for students in order for new ideas, skills and attitudes to develop.

Of course, I am not suggesting we must be neutral —for that only serves the oppressor—but we need to enter into the justice frame in the role of teacher who is working with learners and, as the saying goes, meeting them where they are, not where we want them to be. This is where true transformation and ally ship become possible.

So, teach. Embrace the difficulty of the subject matter. The emotional volatility is not an impediment to our work—it is the work.

My Journey: How I Got Here

It took me quite some time to figure this out. As a student of anti-racism and anti-oppression education since the mid-90s as well as a professionally trained public school teacher, I did what I was taught: I explained concepts like oppression, focused on systemic rather than overt forms of discrimination, and talked about power, privilege as well as intersectionality. I was also knowledgeable in popular education principles, so I developed processes that were interactive, experiential, and suited the needs of the adult learner. These are the strengths of our work, as these are critical pieces to understand.

But, when I got resistance from students with social privilege—especially those who were white and male—I did what had been modeled by my social justice teachers: out-talk, out-maneuver, and if needed, shut down my students. Afterwards I would vent about my experience to peers, complain about the team, staff, or workplace I had just presented to—how they just did not “get it” due to the high levels of privilege.

The weird thing was that I did this for almost a decade and was uncomfortable with it much of the time. But I did it anyways without stopping to think about why. This is how my people did it…so it became a habit. But my professional teacher training was always bothered by it—there was a disconnect, a feeling I found hard to name. It took many years for to verbalize the discomfort. And then it landed: If the teacher fails to impart the learning, the student gets blamed.

Unfortunately, this approach is common. It’s also a fundamental abdication of responsibility in our role as educators. As a result, we are unable to step into our full power and responsibility. Our over-built political awareness has hypnotized us to social power dynamics at the expense of deep self-awareness, personal power, self-efficacy and resiliency— critical inner tools our people have always leveraged to advance the work. It is to the detriment of our movement-building.

And, it doesn’t have to be this way.

In the next article, join me as I explore how the hole in racial/ social justice work impacts not just how we teach, but how we are with each other. I’ll demonstrate how we use the infamous Master’s tools on each other, nurturing a culture high in judgment, ideology, fear and unprocessed pain. And how integrating psychological literacy can help.

This is Part 1 in a series of articles to be published over the next 12 months to encourage community dialogue regarding cleaning up our own house with regards to racial/ social justice education in order to be more effective and compassionate, both within justice-based communities and society at large.

Comments

This is a wonderful article combining work in psychology and social justice. You are 100% correct in taking nervous system overwhelm as a fundamental contributor to learning. There is abundant literature in the scientific realm, most notably the work by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who looked at how increasing levels of arousal (i.e stress) results in reduced learning performance (resulting in an inverted “U” shape). The same principles apply here. Furthermore, addressing inherent biases which contribute and perpetuate the resistance also need to be acknowledged.

Thank you for naming the nervous system as one of the systems we need to teach to, learn from, work with and understand in doing transformative education and community work. There are some important edges to learn about here – between what people can genuinely take in (see, learn) and where they shut down (act out/reject/entrench).

There’s something important that you lift up here too – around being ever mindful about how we as educators/community developers/leaders hold the spaces needed to learn and integrate and, ultimately, help others act with emotional literacy and response-ability. Thanks for sharing so honestly. Being truly at a learning edge is vulnerable work for all.

Hi Shakil, thank you so very much for this deeply thoughtful articulation of something I’ve been struggling with in some of my own work, especially when the ‘Woke Olympics’ shows up among, say, white people who’ve been working on racial equity for a while, among a group of others who are newer to the conversations. And the jargon, the emerging orthodoxy of the discussions – which represent complex, rich bodies of thinking and analysis, so are super valuable – can also be so intellectual and almost elitist for people who aren’t steeped in them. It makes sense that people cannot learn through a haze of shame or amygdala hijack – and learning, not shaming, is always the over objective. I can’t wait for the rest of your series!

Hey, Suzanne. So good to hear from you! The orthodoxy and elitism you’ve identified is the problem. It’s the shadow side of our work and unless we bring it into the foreground and talk about it with one another, it only grows bigger and more powerful…making us less effective. But if we name it…we’re more likely to take it.

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His words are honest and disarming and the book’s framework is both original and needed.

Shakil Choudhury presents a uniquely accessible combination of personal observations and scientific evidence to make a convincing case for Deep Diversity. His words are honest and disarming and the book’s framework is both original and needed. This book will make you think hard and think better about what's good for you, your organization and society at large.

Mahzarin R BanajI, Co-founder of Project Implicit
Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases in Good People (2013)

2015-04-16T14:59:14+00:00

Mahzarin R BanajI, Co-founder of Project Implicit
Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Co-author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases in Good People (2013)

Shakil Choudhury presents a uniquely accessible combination of personal observations and scientific evidence to make a convincing case for Deep Diversity. His words are honest and disarming and the book’s framework is both original and needed. This book will make you think hard and think better about what's good for you, your organization and society at large.

A breakthrough book about how to achieve the kind of racial equity that goes far beyond traditional notions of “diversity.”

Shakil Choudhury has written a breakthrough book about how to achieve the kind of racial equity that goes far beyond traditional notions of "diversity." In his deep dive, he grapples with the implications of several decades of neuroscience, reflecting on the role of emotion in racial matters, while still grounded in systems, rules, and power. Everyone working on race issues should read this book. Even when you don't agree, you will be provoked to think harder about the enormity of our challenge, and how to generate the emotional, as well as intellectual, fortitude to meet that challenge.

Rinku Sen
Executive Director, Race Forward
Publisher, Colorlines

2015-04-16T15:10:46+00:00

Rinku Sen
Executive Director, Race Forward
Publisher, Colorlines

Shakil Choudhury has written a breakthrough book about how to achieve the kind of racial equity that goes far beyond traditional notions of "diversity." In his deep dive, he grapples with the implications of several decades of neuroscience, reflecting on the role of emotion in racial matters, while still grounded in systems, rules, and power. Everyone working on race issues should read this book. Even when you don't agree, you will be provoked to think harder about the enormity of our challenge, and how to generate the emotional, as well as intellectual, fortitude to meet that challenge.

Choudury’s text offers straightforward tools that can help everyone assess their own innate reactions in any situation

Working in sports, issues of race and cultural biases often come into play when determining how to approach some of the issues that shape the socio-political aspects of the industry. Choudury's text offers straightforward tools that can help everyone assess their own innate reactions in any situation. More than that, it's a great read--the book derives its heart from its author, who writes scientifically but very personally, confronting his own discriminatory reactions as unflinchingly as he asks us to do, and effortlessly straddles the line between insightful analysis and compelling narrative.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings
Deputy Editor, Sportsnet magazine

2015-04-16T15:11:52+00:00

Jordan Heath-Rawlings
Deputy Editor, Sportsnet magazine

Working in sports, issues of race and cultural biases often come into play when determining how to approach some of the issues that shape the socio-political aspects of the industry. Choudury's text offers straightforward tools that can help everyone assess their own innate reactions in any situation. More than that, it's a great read--the book derives its heart from its author, who writes scientifically but very personally, confronting his own discriminatory reactions as unflinchingly as he asks us to do, and effortlessly straddles the line between insightful analysis and compelling narrative.

Deep Diversity emphasizes the importance of relationships and compassion

I sincerely wish this book had been written 10 years ago. I saw myself in many of the experiences and struggles described, as I'm sure many of my equity colleagues will. I was in tears twice reading this - it really got to the core of why this work is so difficult, and why it's so rewarding…Deep Diversity emphasizes the importance of relationships and compassion, principles I have always maintained are keys to equity work…I found this book not only helpful but hopeful. Miigwetch for sharing this.

I sincerely wish this book had been written 10 years ago. I saw myself in many of the experiences and struggles described, as I'm sure many of my equity colleagues will. I was in tears twice reading this - it really got to the core of why this work is so difficult, and why it's so rewarding…Deep Diversity emphasizes the importance of relationships and compassion, principles I have always maintained are keys to equity work…I found this book not only helpful but hopeful. Miigwetch for sharing this.